The Hotel Wilmina in Charlottenburg, Germany, was a women’s prison built in 1896. It is now a chic place to live, with luxurious rooms and original prison elements such as bars on the windows.
One of the last strange hotels in the world appeared recently in Berlin. Here, a real prison was turned into a luxury hotel.
The spacious guest suite at the Wilmina Hotel in Charlottenburg was once a prison cell.
Moreover, one of the cells was kept in its original form, so that the guests do not forget about the previous inhabitants of the hotel.
Architects Adolf Bruckner and Eduard Fürstenau designed the prison buildings in 1896, and some of them were used during World War II to house resistance fighters.
The women’s prison was closed in 1985, but this year it reopened in a new capacity for other guests after standing for decades “inaccessible and forgotten.”
Partially, the walls of the prison were preserved, and with the help of modern materials, it was possible to turn it into a super-hotel.
The doors of the cells were left in their original form, and inside the entire space was covered with matte white paint, combining it with brickwork and warm, cozy light.
To get to the hotel from the street, you need to cross the courtyard, and then enter the lobby with high ceilings.
At the center of the building is a five-level atrium where skylights flood the space with light and balustrades evoke the hotel’s origins.
Since the cells were originally very small, the partitions between the cells had to be broken down, bringing adjacent rooms together.
Now they range from 11-square-meter singles to the massive 75-square-meter loft that the old assembly hall has become. You can choose “cozy” or “classic”, “garden view” or a real penthouse.
Bars still adorn all the windows, some of which have been “thinned out” to open up a beautiful view, and the rooms themselves are decorated in an elegant, minimalist style.
The rooms on the fifth floor have floor-to-ceiling panoramic windows and thin chain curtains.
There is a roof terrace, a library, a spa, a gym and a bar.
Surrounded by trees and patios, Lovis Restaurant serves traditional cuisine prepared by Chef Sofia Rudolf.
Rooms in August cost 126 euros, and in September – from 150 euros.
Situated in the heart of Berlin, this hotel offers easy access to sights such as the Berlin Wall, the Reichstag Building, Museum Island, and the Brandenburg Gate.
Wilmina is not the only prison hotel in the world.
Malmaison in Oxford was once the “A” wing of the county jail at Oxford Castle.
And Four Seasons Sultanahmet in Turkey was a prison until 1918.